Fire and Powder
by Princess Shahrazad
Summary: What if Derek saved Kate in an Alpha attack? Shameless Derek/Kate ship. A stand-alone.
1. Chapter 1: Hunger

Chapter One: Hunger

"Derek Hale!"

Her voice rings out clearly in the space between the tall trees and the moonlit sky. He sees her, a crossbow in hand and a pack of arrows slung on her back.

"Here, good doggy!" She taunts with her eyes playfully looking up to sky. She takes one arrow and put it against the bow string and starts pulling.

"Come, little doggy!"

Damn the woman! Derek curses. If he doesn't kill her first, the Alpha will. She is too loud, thinking that there are only two of them in this crazy game of murderous hide-and-seek. In another situation, in another life, he would be happy to tell her that he is not her enemy. He would voluntarily explain to her that he is not what she is supposed to be hunting for. He would make her understand, politely and gentleman-like that they are up against something far bigger than her misconception and bigotry.

But now, there she is, standing in the middle of the bone-like trees, ready to tear at his flesh, calling out to him like a lunatic. She had followed his vehicle and they are now both stuck in this God-forsaken place, a deathly crucible. Other than her determination and physical dexterity, Kate Argent is a mere human. With some careful calculations he could avoid the crossbow's path, jump her, knock her unconscious, bring her to the jeep and lock her in the vehicle. Then, he will resume his hunt on the Alpha.

"Come out now, you son of a b*tch!" The woman yells some more. Derek Hale launches himself from a strong branch of a leafy tree and starts to tear his way towards her. She wouldn't have a chance, he is sure. Just about twenty yards before he can reach Kate Argent and put everyone here out of misery by silencing her.

What is that? He sees it. Coming from opposite direction right towards her. Faster, much faster than him. It is the Alpha under his hunt! While his run towards the hunter is with the intention of putting her to temporary silence, the Alpha's run for her is more desperate, more primal. Derek Hale knows it instantly. It is hunger.

The Alpha is going to tear her apart and lick bits and pieces of her clean.

That is not going to be good. If there is restrain in Chris Argent for him before this, it is going to end once the Alpha lays but one claw on his sister, Kate.

He has too much on his plate already to let that happen. Derek forces himself faster, all the time in disbelief that he is on the riddled path of saving the life of a mad wolf hunter whose sole aim in her existence is to kill him.


	2. Chapter 2: Wounds

**Author's Note: **Thanks for reading, guys. Teen Wolf is only up to its fourth episode in my country, so bear with me as things may get incongruent. I view this piece as a stand-alone.

**Chapter 2: Wounds**

The thing that jumps onto her back weights like a tonne of bricks and feels like it too. In a fraction of a second she is crushed against a large tree trunk. Her head is spinning. She can barely see what she is up against. The thing is pushing her into the tree as it let out a terrifying howl. It comes to Kate as a death sentence – she is in the clutches of an Alpha. The abominable mutation of a wild beast that infect a human body and transforms the human into the beast's very own fury and grotesque. The Alpha is large and strong, hungry and furious. In mere seconds, she is going to die, in the most horrific death one can imagine.

And just as sudden as it came down on her, it is pulled away. She drops to the grown on all fours, retching and gasping for air. She feels for cuts or torn limbs but finds none. Kate Argent looks up and sees in the half light, a lean and nimble man pounding his fist into the face of the beastly creature, which is fully covered with hair and completely animalistic. They are both are baring their canines, hissing and growling as they claw into each other furiously. Dust fly on the spot they are duking it out. Kate tries to find the blade she slipped into her belt. Her head is still pounding.

But she notices something is getting the Alpha's attention. It looks up, ears standing up despite the man continuing to claw into its seemingly impenetrable body. Then, the animal let go off the man who has proven almost to be its equal and slips into the night like a demon rushing into the gates of hell. It howls like a weeping ghost.

The pain is subsiding and Kate feels a rough hand touching her face and pushing her head aside. The face of the person touching her face is so close to her, she can taste his musky, earthen aroma.

Derek Hale.

He breathes in annoyance into her face. His other hand is travelling to her back, ribcage and front. Its travel is urgent but not violating.

"You're fine! Get up!" He says gruffly and pulls her jacket to get on her feet. Kate is used to rough men, but this one is different. He wants her to walk off her pain and pretend nothing has happened. At the same time, it makes her angry that he is brazenly checking her body with the perfect excuse of examining her injuries. He is supposed to kill her the first chance he gets, as she would have done to him. For the first time in her life, she doesn't understand him. She doesn't understand the very man that she has at one point made prisoner and taunted him so he would feel weak. This confusion is making her pissed.

"Get your paws off me!" She hisses, pushing him away on the chest. Something she touches made her take her hand away from him like she has touched a live wire. Her hands come off with blood, lots of it. He is bleeding. On closer focus, she sees deep gashes on his chest and torso, which are easily hidden by his black get up. And it seems to her that he is noticing his injuries for the first time too. He staggers, sways and kneels on the ground. Derek Hale closes his eyes and clenches his fists. Kate knows exactly what is going on. Derek is healing himself.

And at that moment when Derek Hale is taking the much needed concentration and exertion to repair his body, Kate hears a loud crash of a gun. Instantly, Derek is thrown to the ground, writhing in pain.

Kate turns around in horror.

"Kate! Are you OK?"

It is Chris, carrying his gun. The one which he always got loaded with silver bullets.

"Did it hurt you?"

Kate looks at Derek, who is gasping and struggling with pain as he faces death alone but under the watch of two people who seek only for his destruction and nothing else.


	3. Chapter 3: Traitors

**Chapter 3: Traitors**

Chris Argent approaches nearer, and aims his gun towards Derek.

"Should've killed him at first shot," he sighs, as if he is bored to death. Kate gets on her feet.

"You hurt my family, you're dead," Chris says and puts his finger to the trigger. Kate pulls the blade from under her shirt. She swings it and strikes Chris on the side of his head with the blade's handle. She hits with such strength that Chris spins on the spot before he slumps on the ground. Kate walks to the fallen beta. She drops on her knees and finds that Derek is still lucid, breathing laboriously. He is trying to get up but due to obvious reasons cannot do so. Kate gnashes her teeth and grabs at Derek's collar.

"Why did you do it?" She yells. Derek shakes his head, as if trying to clear his mind.

"Did what?" He asks.

"Saved me," Kate answers in anger. Dying, the man still manages to royally annoy her.

Derek grins and bares his detestable but terrifyingly beautiful canines.

"Kate Argent, how did you get to be so messed up?" He says before he closes his cold, icy blue eyes. Kate curses, damn you, damn you. She pulls his collar and forces him to be on his feet.

"And how did you get to be so weak, Derek Hale?"

It is as if she is moving without her own consent. She puts her arm to his back and becomes a reluctant crutch for him.

"It's a silver bullet, for f*ck's sake."

"Walk it off," she orders.

"No one walks off a bullet, silver or otherwise."

He limps; dragging his feet as she half pushes and pulls him to her jeep. Kate glances at the face-down Chris regretfully. He would just let her do her own thing now. She has her reasons. When they reach the jeep, she throws him on the back seat.

"Put pressure on the wound," she reminds him. Derek moans something guttural. Kate gets behind the wheel. She has to get him out of here. But where? She has only managed to drive for a half a mile when she hears the werewolf groans.

"Stop!" He yells, exerting all he has left.

Kate Argent stops the engine and turns to the backseat. She can see it. Derek Hale is pale but now he is deathly pale.

"What?"

"Where are you taking me?"

"I don't know yet."

"Stop it now. Kill me. There's no use lugging a dead weight around Beacon Hill."

Kate gets out of her seat and slams the door.

"You want to die, Derek Hale?" Kate taunts him. She takes out the knife she had used on her brother a few minutes ago.

"It's like I'm being skinned alive. Kill me now."

Derek tears apart his shirt and it is all shown to Kate. His wound is beneath his ribcage. The bullet has probably pierced his stomach or spleen. But that isn't the thing doing the damage. The curse of silver against lycans is spreading along his torso in thick snake-like purple-black coils, all moving towards his heart. Derek is in agony. Kate is almost upset that she doesn't feel rapturous seeing it happen.

"Tell me, Hale. Who killed my father? Tell me and I'll put you out of your misery!"

There is something on Derek's face that shames her. It is almost as if the lycan is sympathetic towards her. And she hates to be pitied upon. And how can he do that when he is the one suffering now? Kate is completely thrown off balance now.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. Arghh!" Derek's apology is halted by another surge of tremor spasming his body.

"This will never end," Derek exhales. What energy he has left to prop his body against the wall of the jeep is now gone. There is nothing left in him to use for the struggle against pain.

"Damn you, wolves!" Kate yells and begins to rip Derek's shirt completely off his torso. She looks at him and remembers how she has had him completely restrained but absolutely not subdued. She has literally tasted Derek Hale's body. It feels like tasting salt on silk.

"Damn you!" She plunges the knife into the bullet wound on his side. He responds with a sigh, moving barely. She knows how it looks like. She is a psycho hacking at meat at the backseat of her jeep. After making a crude incision, then with her bare hands, she takes out the bullet made of silver from the wound. His body arches is its final bout of agony, as she searches for the bullet among his insides. She feels it, cold and unforgiving. She yanks it out and he breathes out, body slack and utterly spent surrendering to the discomfort of the cramped space of the backseat. Kate looks at the bullet, thought bitterly about the war, and throws it out, into the dark of night outside the jeep.

Then she looks at him. Sleeping or dead, she doesn't know. His blood is on her hand. She sees a vehicle's headlights half a mile away. She knows it is Chris. What is she going to do?

This will never end, he said. It rings clearly in her mind.


End file.
